This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: BBC
May 7, 2009
Some people say economic power is shifting towards the East, but is that a new development?
That three of the four largest economies in the world might be Asian suggests that the old world order is re-establishing itself, according to Dr Kishore Mahbuani at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
Just as Genghis Khan once established an empire that covered more than one fifth of the Earth's surface, stretching from Japan to Ea
Source: Press Release
May 8, 2009
All people of goodwill are invited to attend the 45th Annual Mississippi Civil Rights Martyrs Memorial Service and Conference and March for Justice. We will remember and honor slain civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and all other Mississippi civil rights martyrs. Over fifty victims have been identified thus far.
The weekend’s events begin on Saturday, June 20, with a March for Justice commemorating the march that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led in
Source: http://www.clarionledger.com
May 4, 2009
The State Records Committee approved a schedule last week that will permit destruction of state records dating to 1927, some of them detailing allegations of abuses and injuries to patients at Ellisville State School.
"If you're throwing that much information away, you're losing history," said researcher Jan Hillegas of Jackson, who attended the meeting at which the decision was made. "People need to be writing this history. They need to be aware of it."
Source: Times (UK)
May 7, 2009
An investigation by the US Justice Department into the authors of Bush-era “torture memos” is unlikely to recommend criminal prosecution — but may suggest that they should be disciplined or even banned from practising as lawyers.
According to reports yesterday, the inquiry has concluded that lawyers such as John Yoo and Jay Bybee committed serious lapses of judgment when they wrote secret memorandums authorising harsh interrogations including waterboarding of terror suspects.
Source: Times (UK)
May 8, 2009
President Obama is preparing to follow in the footsteps of his great-uncle, Charlie, with a visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany when he returns to Europe this summer.
The site is laden with historic and personal significance for the President. More than 50,000 people died at the camp before its liberation in April, 1945 by American soldiers, including Charlie Payne, the uncle of Mr Obama’s mother.
For the soldiers that stumbled over the corpses it wa
Source: Times (UK)
May 8, 2009
A flight of Royal Navy aircraft flew over London yesterday, circling the Houses of Parliament in an air show to mark 100 years of naval aviation.
The Duke of York, who saw active service as a naval pilot during the Falklands conflict, joined war veterans on board the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, moored at Greenwich, southeast London. Merlin, Sea King and Lynx helicopters as well as Hawk and Jetstream aircraft took part. Prince Andrew said: “Aviation is a very challenging busin
Source: Times (UK)
May 8, 2009
An honour established by the Queen has been declared unlawful after Muslims and Hindus complained that its Christian name and cross insignia were offensive.
The Trinity Cross of the Order of Trinity was established by the Queen 40 years ago to recognise distinguished service and gallantry in the former colony of Trinidad and Tobago. It has been received by 62 people including the cricketers Garfield Sobers and Brian Lara, the novelist V. S. Naipaul and many of the islands’ leading
Source: Reuters
May 8, 2009
British immigration officials told former Nepalese Gurkha soldiers on Thursday that they could not stay in the country despite a government pledge to relax rules limiting how many could retire here.
Gurkha soldiers have fought for Britain since 1815, and they still go into battle with traditional curved Kukri knives. Their advocates say they should have the same settlement rights as other overseas troops.
Opposition politicians said that letters had been sent to five Gu
Source: http://civilwarinteractive.com
May 5, 2009
At a news conference this morning, advocates for historic preservation gathered to decry the construction of Walmart supercenter proposed for the entrance to Virginia’s Wilderness Battlefield. If built, the megastore would stand across the road from the national park commemorating the bloody struggle, and within the battlefield’s historic footprint.
Robert Duvall, Academy Award-winning actor and descendent of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, led the charge. “The Walmart Corporat
Source: http://www.nbcaugusta.com
May 6, 2009
A major piece of unwritten history may be sitting in a Philadelphia museum and it's been there for decades. A pillowcase used by Abraham Lincoln the night he was shot may contain a sample of his DNA and a secret about the former President's health.
Inside this unassuming northeast Philadelphia Civil War museum, a strip of bloodstained pillowcase may answer a mystery that could change how we view one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln.
Museum Vice President Andy Waskie says"This is
Source: AP
May 6, 2009
For sale soon: a variety of torture devices from the 16th century, including shame masks to enforce silence, a 14-foot table-like rack to stretch the victim's body, and a tongue tearer to punish blasphemers and heretics. Even an executioner's sword.
New York's Guernsey's auction house plans to auction the privately owned collection, with proceeds to go to Amnesty International and other organizations committed to preventing torture in today's world, said Guernsey's president, Arlan
Source: http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/19387482/detail.html
May 6, 2009
LAS VEGAS -- Last week it appeared the Moulin Rouge hotel would be getting a new lease on life. Now, progress at the historic Las Vegas property has taken a monumental step backwards.
A devastating four-alarm fire tore through the building Wednesday afternoon, sending clouds of smoke billowing into the skies just north of downtown Las Vegas....
The Moulin Rouge Development Corp. recently reached a deal with Washington-based Republic Urban Properties to renovate the 54-y
Source: http://www.hurriyet.com
May 6, 2009
A team of 20 rowers will next week aim to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a replica Phoenician-style "bireme" ship from Turkey to France.
The Kybele boat -- named after an Anatolian goddess -- will leave the Turkish village of Foca near Izmir and travel 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) to the ancient port of Marseille in southern France.
Rowers, comprising students and members of the "360 Degrees Association," will sleep on benches in the biremes wooden
Source: HNN Staff
May 7, 2009
Under pressure to limit red ink, the White House announced $17 billion in budget cuts today.
Only one history program is affected: Academies for American History and Civics. The program, which cost $33 million, is being zeroed out.
The explanation:
The Administration proposes to eliminate the following three programs:
Civic Education. Provides several non-competitive grants to organizations that promote civic responsibility
through teacher training and i
Source: MSNBC
May 6, 2009
Rome's most irreverent statues are going to be blocked off in special fencing in an attempt to sanitize the satirical voice of the Roman people.
In Renaissance Rome, when strict laws punished those who spoke against the powers that controlled the city, citizens began hanging caustic comments on the statues in the dark of the night. The tradition has continued to this day.
Begun to celebrate Rome's recent 2,762 birthday, the 70,000-euro ($93,600) restoration project is
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 7, 2009
The US president had personally pushed for reconciliation between the two countries.
Yet the budding rapprochement is threatening to undermine the delicate balance of power in the Caucasus with potentially serious consequences for Europe's energy security.
Energy rich Azerbaijan is deeply unhappy that Turkey, a vital ally, is cosying up to Armenia, with whom it fought an unresolved war in the early 1990s over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Fearin
Source: NYT
May 7, 2009
Although the nation has plunged into its deepest recession since the Great Depression, 72 percent of Americans in this nationwide survey said they believed it is possible to start out poor in the United States, work hard and become rich — a classic definition of the American dream.
And yet only 44 percent said they had actually achieved the American dream, although 31 percent said they expect to attain it within their lifetime. Only 20 percent have given up on ever reaching it. Thos
Source: The Independent (UK)
May 4, 2009
35,000-year-old skull fragments found in Romania are made flesh by scientists.
The face of the first anatomically-modern human to live in Europe has been revealed. It belonged to a man – or woman – who inhabited the ancient forests of the Carpathian Mountains in what is now Romania about 35,000 years ago.
The artist's reconstruction – a face that could be male or female – is based on the partial skull and jawbone found in a cave where bears were known to hibernate. The
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 7, 2009
Half-size humans whose remains were found on the remote Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 have been confirmed to be a new species, and not modern pygmies whose brains had shrivelled with disease.
Since the discovery of Homo floresiensis - dubbed "the hobbit" due to its size - anthropologists have argued over the identity and origins of the cave-dwellers.
Measuring just three feet high and weighing 65 pounds, the tiny, tool-making hunters may have roamed the
Source: BBC
May 7, 2009
The story of an Aberdeenshire man who became Peter the Great's right-hand man has been told in full for the first time with the publication of his diary.
Patrick Gordon left Ellon as a teenager and later became an army general, helping the man who westernised Russia.
Prof Paul Dukes, who worked with the Research Institute for Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen to publish the diary, said: "Gordon was a truly remarkable man and the diary is an
